


Brothers' Keeper

by FaithWinchester



Series: Brothers' Keeper [1]
Category: Legend (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:00:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24452506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaithWinchester/pseuds/FaithWinchester
Summary: California girl Dawn Jackson is a bartender working for Reggie and Ronnie Kray in their 60's themed nightclub in London.
Relationships: Reginald "Reggie" Kray/Original Female Character(s), Reginald "Reggie" Kray/Ronald "Ronnie" Kray/Original Female Character(s), Ronald "Ronnie" Kray/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Brothers' Keeper [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1766131
Comments: 5
Kudos: 40





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Usual disclaimers apply: I do not own any recognizable characters, nor do I profit from this work of fiction.
> 
> So I only recently discovered this movie in a serious Tom Hardy obsession and while I of course do not support the actions of the actual Kray brothers, their characters as depicted by Tom Hardy in the movie were irresistible for a fanfiction writer. I usually steer very clear of Original characters, but this character really just sort of wrote herself in my brain, so I went with it. This story is intended to be the first in a series. I did not have a beta reader for this, just sort of went with it. If anyone out there reading this is interested in being a beta reader, let me know, I'm needing one!

The Kray twins were not good guys. They were thugs and gangsters and worse, neither of them was the type to lose sleep over killing a man, as long as he deserved it. They ran the streets of the East End of London like a couple of Gangland Princes and they didn’t apologize for it. No, they weren’t good guys… but they weren’t all bad either, Dawn mused, watching them interact with the members of their crew in their favorite booth in the corner.

They were both gorgeous, like seeing doubles of the same beautiful face, with intense dark eyes, a strong jaw and that full mouth, so alike, and yet, very different. Reggie Kray was slick and charming, a sweet talker, always polite when he wasn’t involved in business. He was quick to smile and laugh and the sound always made Dawn smile to herself. Ron was the awkward one, quieter, most of the time, unless he was having one of his “off” days. Those days, he was loud and demanded attention from everyone around him. Some days he was looking for a fight, poking and goading everyone around him, like he wanted someone to take a swing. Some quirk of genetics had given him less than perfect eyesight, so he was always distinguishable from his brother by his glasses. Dawn didn’t need the glasses to know which of the twins she was looking at. Ron had a way of looking at people, at her, that felt like he was trying to see more than just her face. Dawn would do some small thing for him, bring him tea or a drink, depending on the time of day, and he would smile, just a little. She knew that Ron liked men, and wasn't the least bit interested in her, but those smiles always made her melt inside, because it came from Ron and he didn’t smile nearly enough. They both wore their hair slicked back, true to the 60’s theme of their club, Ron’s combed straight back from his face, Reggie’s parted cleanly on the left, and whatever product they used to get the look made their hair look darker than the medium brown she knew it to be. She’d never seen either of them in anything other than the 60’s era suits they wore to the club. They would lose the jackets regularly, and she’d seen them roll the sleeves of those pristine white shirts up over muscled forearms at various times. On hot days, she’d seen Reg unbutton the shirt completely, the simple white tank top underneath clinging to what she was pretty sure was an amazing body. She wondered, probably more often than she should, if either of them owned a pair of jeans, and then, inevitably, she would spend a ridiculous amount of time imagining what they would look like from behind with faded denim molded to those well toned asses. 

They were good to their mother, treated her like a queen, and they were well liked in the neighborhood. They were always courteous and helpful and if the neighbors knew that the same hands that were carrying their groceries up the stairs had beat a man half to death the night before, well, they weren’t going to say anything about it. Ronnie and Reggie kept the bad element away from their mother’s home and out of the neighborhood and that was enough.

Dawn Jackson had been working for the Krays at their club since she moved to London from California almost six months earlier, long enough to have seen and heard plenty of their business dealings. She knew what her bosses did behind the scenes and it didn’t bother her. She hadn’t shared her reasons for leaving the states and the Krays hadn’t asked, but her comfort level with the off the books business hinted that she was no stranger to the life. 

She was most comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt, but like the rest of the club employees, she dressed in vintage clothes during club hours, which usually meant a skirt and blouse or a sheath dress, and if the skirt was a little shorter than an authentic 60’s outfit, or the dress was made of soft, snug, stretchy material, well no one was complaining that she was out of costume. Heels were almost a must, working behind the bar. At 5’4”, she had a hard time reaching across the bar without the added height. The heels also served to make her legs look longer and, she hoped, slimmer. Dawn was what her mother had called “curvy”, with full breasts and rounded hips. Her thighs rubbed together when she walked and her waist wasn’t as tiny as she would have liked, but her stomach was mostly flat and she was comfortable in her skin. Her hair was dark blond, her eyes were blue-green, and her skin was a pale, creamy color that never seemed to darken, even in the California sun. She played to her strengths, firm thighs and deep cleavage, and shorter skirts, lower necklines and snug dresses brought bigger tips. She’d turned down her fair share of offers from men, and every once in a while someone didn’t want to take no for an answer, but the bouncers took care of them without hesitation. Dawn spent her time surrounded by rough men in a rough business, but she loved her job and Reggie and Ronnie made sure she was safe. She’d never heard them say it, but she was aware that they’d made it clear that any man who put a hand on her would lose the hand. One of the waitresses had told her, after she heard it from one of the boys.

She worked at the club until closing most nights, and then stayed to do basic cleanup behind the bar, usually alone. It was one of those nights when she heard the sound of glass shattering against the tiled floor of the kitchen and nearly came out of her skin. Her hand shook, but just a little, when she reached under the bar and pulled out the loaded shotgun. Reggie had put it there, shortly after she came to work for them, and Ronnie, seeing the way she looked at it, had taken her out and showed her how to shoot it the next day.  _ Every woman should know how to use a gun. This is not a safe world, _ he’d told her in that blunt way of his and she had to agree. He made her practice until she hit the empty liquor bottles at least eight times out of ten. She was grateful for the lessons now, her finger hovering over the trigger as she crept slowly around the bar and into the kitchen.

He was sitting on the floor, in the dark, the room lit only by the light coming through the doorway. The shards of a broken bottle littered the floor beside him. His head was resting against the cupboard, and she wasn’t completely sure he was conscious.

“Reggie?” she said, hesitantly. His eyes slitted open and he raised his head.

“Sunshine, what are you doin’ here?”

“Finishing up behind the bar,” she said, crossing the space between them to kneel in front of him, careful of the glass. “Are you okay? Did you hit your head?” she asked, reaching out to touch his face. His hair was falling forward into his eyes and he was looking out at her from behind it.

His brow furrowed.

“No, why? ‘M I bleedin’?” he asked.

“No, you’re not bleeding but you don’t seem to know my name,” she told him and he snorted.

“I know you. I know exactly who you are, Sunshine,” he retorted, very clearly drunk. “Dawn, bright and warm, lights up the dark parts, smells like vanilla and summertime, ‘s what Ronnie and me say. Our Sunshine.”

“Oh” she said, quietly.

“Gonna shoot me, Sunshine?” he asked and she blinked, then realized she was still holding the shotgun.

“Of course not, Reggie,” she said, setting the gun on the counter above his head. “I didn’t know it was you and no one else is here,” she told him, reaching out to push his hair off his face. If his hair was softer than she expected, his skin warm under her fingertips, well she was just not going to even think about it. He stared at her, as if it was taking a moment to focus on her face.

“No one else is here?”

“No, Reg, they all went home hours ago,” she said, sliding her hands under his arms and bracing herself to try and get him to his feet. “Let’s get you off the floor, okay?” She started to try and lift him and her eyes widened when he rose to his feet, not smoothly, but under mostly his own power. He was still looking at her.

“Should probably pick up the gun, Sunshine. Should have it ready, to protect yourself,” he told her, seriously, leaning back against the counter for balance. She held onto him, steadying him and his hands rose to grip her shoulders.

“Why, Reg? There’s no one here but you and me,” she said, looking up at him.

“To protect you from me,” he said, his hands sliding up her neck to hold her jaw, tilting her face up and bringing his mouth crashing down on hers.

***


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, glad you're still with me. I have finished this fic, I just haven't decided how to split up the chapters exactly, so I'm not sure how many there will be. Again, very open to a beta, if anyone is interested, for this fandom and many others that I work in.
> 
> ***

Reginald Kray liked being in control. In control of his life, his club, his business and his city. He always had a plan, and if he didn’t, he damn well made it seem like he did to anyone watching. He made it a point to know who was around him at all times, to know where the exits were, where the weapons were, and where his twin brother was. Not being in control was unacceptable, which was why, when he opened his eyes to an unfamiliar room, his first reaction was to freeze and remain perfectly still while he took stock in his surroundings.

The walls were a light blue color and the bedspread, from what he could see of it, was a similar color with what he thought might be clouds on it. He was under the bedspread and a clean white top sheet and a slight shift of his head told him the bottom sheet was also a bright white, and the pillowcase matched the bedspread. The material felt clean and soft and smelled freshly laundered, like fabric softener and a hint of some familiar scent that he couldn’t quite place. Vanilla? Not the food, but maybe a perfume that smelled like vanilla? The sheets felt nice against his skin, and he realized he was only wearing his underwear. Sunlight was shining into the room, and it felt late in the morning. Slowly, Reggie turned over in the bed and blinked at the light coming through the windows. The curtains were white, moving a little in the slight breeze through the slightly open window pane. He could see a bookshelf, a small desk with a laptop sitting on it, what looked like his clothes in a neat pile next to the laptop, and over the back of the chair, a familiar blue dress. 

Reggie’s heart pounded as bits of the night before started coming back to him. He’d had a few drinks with the boys, ended up walking home, but instead of going to his place, he’d ended up at the club. It had been closed, but of course he had the key. She’d been there, by herself. He remembered her voice,  _ Are you okay? Did you hit your head? _ and calling her Sunshine. He vaguely remembered telling her she should shoot him and then the taste of her mouth, like honey and whiskey, smooth and warm. He didn’t remember anything after that and he muttered a curse under his breath.  _ He’d kissed Sunshine _ . _ Did he fuck her?  _ He couldn’t remember and Ronnie was going to be pissed. They’d agreed she was off limits, to Reggie, to any of their business associates. Something about her had struck a chord in the Kray brothers when she'd come to work at the club and they were serious about keeping her safe. 

He was still struggling to remember the rest of the night when the door opened and Dawn stuck her head in the room. Seeing him awake, she smiled and stepped into the room with a coffee cup in her hand. 

“Hey, you’re awake. I was starting to wonder if you were going to sleep all day,” she said, approaching the bed as he sat up, making sure the sheet and comforter were covering him. “I’m betting you really want this cup of coffee about now,” she said, turning it in her hands so that he could grab the handle. She grabbed the desk chair and turned it backward, straddling it as he sipped the strong brew and watched her. The coffee was perfect, just the way he liked it, with the perfect amount of sugar and just a little cream. She’d been making his coffee for months though, so really he wasn’t sure why he was so pleased that she’d made it just right. Maybe because they weren’t at the club, and she’d made this coffee, presumably, in her own kitchen. He’d seen her in jeans a handful of times and was once again struck by the way they hugged the curves of her thighs and hips. Her feet were bare and the t-shirt she wore had an American band logo across the chest and the neck cut out, so that it hung to one side, baring one creamy shoulder and the long line of her throat. Her hair was down, loose around her shoulders rather than pulled up like she usually wore it at the club and in the morning light streaming through the windows, he could see the paler gold streaks that ran through the dark blond color.

“This your place then?” he asked, finding his voice and very proud of himself for sounding at least mostly like himself.

“Yeah, well, it was closer than yours,” she said, with a shrug.

“And how, ‘xactly did we uh, get here to your place?” 

***

She never thought she’d see the day that Reggie Kray looked uncertain. Usually he had all the answers before you even thought of the questions. Truthfully, she was enjoying it just a little bit, seeing him out of his element.

“With a great deal of stumbling and a lot of cursing,” she told him, honestly. “You were pretty trashed, Reg.”

“I’m gettin’ that,” he admitted. “I’m not clear on the details though. S’pose you fill me in?”

“There’s not much to fill in. You were drunk, talked a lot of nonsense and I brought you here to sleep it off,” she said, with a shrug. 

“Nothing else happened?” he asked, pointedly and she felt herself flush.

“Do you mean the part where you called me Sunshine? Or the part where you kissed me?” she asked him, quietly.

“Yeah, that’s what I mean,” he said, watching her face. “Don’t seem to be wearing much, either, now am I?”

“Well, yeah, because you insisted you weren’t sleeping in your clothes,” she said, trying very hard to sound like the sight of his mostly naked body hadn’t affected her. Even in the half-light from the bathroom across the hall, he had looked like a work of art, broad shoulders, incredible chest and stomach, powerful thighs, muscles that came from hard work and hard living, not from steroids or a gym membership. God he was pretty.

“Dawn,” he said, sharply and then, more softly, “Sunshine. I need to know what happened.”

“I slept on the couch, Reggie, we didn’t have sex ,” she told him, getting to her feet.

“Why not?” he asked and then frowned, not exactly at her, but more like he was trying to figure out why he’d said that.

“Because I don’t make it a habit to sleep with drunk guys that also happen to be my boss, that’s why,” Dawn said, suddenly feeling awkward in her own bedroom, with said boss sitting mostly naked on her bed. He was watching her face with those intense eyes of his, seeing far more than she wanted him to, she was sure. She didn’t have time to react when he stood up and was suddenly there, right in front of her. He wasn’t an overly tall man, but Dawn was short and she had to look up at him to see his face.

“Which part bothered you, Sunshine? The boss part or the drunk part?” he asked, quietly and she was struck by how very close he was.

“The drunk part,” she said, her voice sounding a little unsteady.

“‘M not drunk now, am I?” he asked.

“No, Reg, you’re not,” she agreed, her mouth suddenly feeling dry. He was lowering his head toward her and when he spoke, she felt his breath on her lips.

“Sunshine, when I kissed you last night… did you kiss me back?”

She didn’t get a chance to answer before his mouth was on hers, stealing her voice, her breath. The kiss was soft, a question and she rose up on her toes, reaching for him to keep her balance, her hands coming to rest on his chest and as soon as she touched him, as soon as she broke that careful barrier between them, it changed. His kiss stopped asking and simply demanded and she gave, opening to him, her arms sliding around his neck when his hands fell to her waist and pulled her against him. One big hand splayed at the base of her spine, fingers curving over her bottom, holding her hips tight against him while his other hand slid up her back, his fingers threading into her hair, clenching, holding her head in place. She could feel him pressing against her belly through the thin cotton of his boxer briefs and the entirety of what she was feeling there made her thighs clench. She wasn’t sure if her female instincts were telling her that was going to hurt, or if they were just screaming for her to hurry up and get her panties off so they could have him.

His hand fisted tighter in her hair, pulling her head back and his lips left her mouth to trail over her jaw, to her throat. She felt the muscles in his shoulders tense and then her feet were off the ground, his hand sliding lower, cupping her bottom and lifting her and she didn’t think twice about wrapping her legs around his waist. The change in position meant that the hard ridge of his erection was no longer pressing against her belly, but instead was nestled snugly between her thighs. Her hips rocked against him apparently of their own free will and she heard a moan, then realized it was hers. His mouth was hot on her throat, the slight rasp of morning whiskers delicious against her skin as he moved lower, dragging the ragged neckline of her shirt lower, so he could reach her cleavage. Her fingers threaded through his hair and she realized she was holding her boss’ head to her breasts, rocking herself against his erection with her legs around his waist at ten in the morning… and then decided she was okay with that.

***

Reggie heard the soft moan leave her throat and it stoked the fire inside him even higher. Her legs were tight around his waist, her hips moving against him, breasts soft and sweet and at just the right level to bury his face against them. Her ass seemed to fit against his palm perfectly, her hair was silk in his fist. He wanted her out of her clothes and under him on the bed behind him and he was turning to take her there when reality intruded with the jarring sound of his cell phone vibrating against the hard surface of the desk. Over the buzzing sound he heard the ringtone he’d set for one person only and it was enough to bring him back some of his control.

“Sunshine,” he said, kissing her neck, gently. “We have to stop.” She whimpered in the back of her throat and he groaned, sitting down on the bed, so that she was sitting on his lap, her legs still around him, but her face at eye level now, rather than her breasts. He released the hold he had on her hair and she opened her eyes, slowly, looking up at him with a heavy lidded gaze.

“We have to stop, luv,” he said, cupping her face in his hands, stroking his thumbs over her lips, her cheeks, unable to stop touching her completely. 

“Why?” she breathed. 

“Ronnie,” he said and her brow furrowed.

“I don’t understand,” she said and he couldn’t help kissing her again, softly on the mouth.

“We made a deal, see, that you were off limits,” he told her. “Wanted to make sure you would be safe, keep you from getting hurt. Made sure all the boys knew to keep their hands off and Ronnie made me promise to do the same.”

“But-” she began and he cut her off.

“Already broke that promise, don’t mean to stop breaking it, either, but I need to talk with him first, make him understand,” he said.

“Understand what?” she asked.

“That this ain’t a game, that you ain’t just a roll in the sheets,” he said, as his phone rang again with Ron’s ringtone. “Need to make ‘im see that ‘m not playin’ with you.”

“What are you doing with me, Reggie?” she asked him, searching his face.

“‘M not sure, actually. Never done this, ‘xactly. What d’you say we find out together?” he suggested and she smiled.

“Okay,” she agreed and Reggie grinned, kissing her again.

***


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm not good at writing accents and I am clearly American born and bred, so apologies for any language/slang that doesn't fit. Feel free to correct me!
> 
> ***

Ronald Kray was not an entirely sane man. He had a darkness in him, a violence,  _ paranoid schizophrenic, they called it _ , but if he took his medication and avoided triggers, he could keep it under control. Usually, his brother was his greatest ally in helping him maintain control. Reggie knew his twin’s triggers, knew how to help him navigate around them, and he always made sure Ron had his pills on hand, just in case. Ron also trusted Reggie to keep him from hurting anyone that he would regret the next day. Now, however, instead of steering him clear, Reggie was the one pulling the trigger.

Dawn Jackson was special. Ron had known it the day they met her. She’d come into the club looking for work and Reggie had agreed to hire her without so much as an application. She was pretty, with a great ass and eye catching tits, and she was American to boot. As long as she could mix a drink, they couldn’t go wrong putting her behind the bar. It was dumb luck that she turned out to be competent, smart and experienced. She was sweet to most people, tough when she needed to be and her smile could light up the darkest pit of Hell inside Ron’s mind. She always made him feel better, brought him back to himself when the club got crowded, when he started to feel the press of people around him and he started to slip. She always seemed to notice and would appear at his side to hand him a fresh drink, to put a hand on his arm and smile and he found himself growing calm under her light touch. He and Reggie had agreed early on that they planned to keep her, for as long as she would stay, and with that in mind, they set out to make sure she was happy and safe, both physically and emotionally. They made it clear that she was off limits to their crew, and to every other crew in London, and Ron had even made Reggie promise to keep his hands off her.  _ The last thing we want _ , he’d told Reggie _ , is for her to have a reason to leave, and if you mess ‘round with her, she won’t stay. She’s not the fooling around type, Reg. _ Reggie had agreed and as far as Ron knew, he’d never gone back on that, until now.

His twin stood in front of him, a drink in his hand despite the noon hour, trying to explain himself.

“It wasn’t something I planned, you know, it just happened, and ‘m not gonna pretend I’m not glad for it,” Reggie was saying, running a hand through his hair, clearly frustrated. “I know we promised, because we don’t want her getting hurt and taking off back to the States, but Ronnie, I don’t plan to hurt her. I really like her, a lot.”

And therein was the problem. It was no secret that Ron preferred men, or that he had a somewhat regular bed partner in Teddy, his longtime friend and the man who Reggie had basically assigned to be his watchdog. If Ron started to slip, Teddy knew how to take steps to pull him back and give Reggie enough time to get there. Teddy was reliable and always up for a good time, but as much as he enjoyed the spectacular blow jobs, Ron didn’t feel for Teddy what he needed to feel to make a real relationship and Teddy knew that. 

When Dawn had walked into their lives, she’d brought with her a warm smile, gentle hands that weren’t afraid to touch his hand or his arm, or fix a stubborn hair for him. She didn’t flinch when he spoke to her, even though he knew she was fully aware of his condition, of at least some of the things he’d done in the past, and he found himself spending more time at the club, at least on the nights he knew she would be working. He’d been surprised to find how much he liked watching her, even more surprised to discover that he wanted to do more than watch her. His hands itched to touch her, to feel if her skin was as soft as it looked, to bury his fingers in her hair and breathe in the vanilla perfume that she wore. That was when Ron had realized that while he might generally  _ prefer _ men, that he also still had the capacity to be attracted to at least one woman. This woman. The woman his brother was, in no uncertain terms, planning to take to his bed.

“Did you hear me, Ronnie? I said I like her, I care about her,” Reggie was saying and Ron looked at him.

“So do I.”

“I know you care about her Ron, and you want to make sure she doesn’t get hurt-” Reggie began but Ron stopped him.

“No, Reg, I like her. The way you like her,” he said and Reggie stared at him, his mouth open.

“You mean, you want to-”

“I want to fuck her,” Ron said, bluntly, then shook his head. “No, that’s not the right word, but I want her, Reggie.”

“Oh,” Reggie said, sitting down across from him, his face still blank with shock. “Well that’s… You’re sure? I mean, she’s a woman and all…”

“Gathered that about her, did you?” Ron snapped. “I know she’s a fucking woman, Reg. I’ve been with a woman before, you know, you were there, you should remember.”

“I remember, Ronnie. Few weeks later you told me you liked boys better.”

“ _ Better _ , Reggie.  _ Better _ , not  _ instead _ , or at least not completely,” Ron said and Reggie gave him a funny half smirk.

“Clearly.” They were quiet for several long moments and then Reggie chuckled, softly.

“That night, it was something, yeah? That girl, what was her name? Krysta?”

“Crystal, and she thought she was something, didn’t she? Swore she could take on the two of us and walk out of the room afterward,” Ron said, with a tiny smile. They shared a laugh at the memory and Ron wondered where Reggie was going with the conversation

“Never thought we’d do that again, not after you told me about the boys, about Teddy,” Reggie said, looking thoughtful. “But what if we did? What if our Sunshine was up for it? For both of us?”

Ron stared at his twin, his face carefully blank while his mind turned the idea over and examined it from all angles.

“For a night?” he asked, “Or for more than that?”

Reggie sighed, took another drink from his glass and leaned back in his seat.

“Dawn, she cares about you, Ron, don’t think I haven’t seen it. Since day one, she’s accepted all the parts of you without a second look. She’s not afraid of you, not like the others. Hell, she’s not afraid of much of anything, is she? She’s good to you and I think she’s good  _ for _ you.”

“I know all that, what are you gettin’ at?” Ron asked and Reggie leaned forward.

“‘M not gonna give her up, Ronnie. You’re my brother and I love you, and the fact that you want to be with this woman is huge, but ‘m not gonna step aside. I want her. I want to spend time with her and talk to her and Christ, I want to get inside her, and ‘m not giving that up, not even for you. But, if she didn’t have to choose, if she didn’t  _ want _ to… I think I could share it. With you, anyway. Only you,” he added. “Don’t think I could see another man’s hands on her.”

Ron didn’t think there there were enough meds in the world to bring him back if he ever had to watch another man put hands on her, but if it was Reg… well Reggie was his twin. They shared everything, right down to their DNA, didn’t they? They’d shared a woman once,  _ it had been Reggie’s idea,  _ when they were very young, 19, he thought, and it had been amazing, the sense of connection between them as they’d fucked her. It hadn't been about her, not really. She hadn’t been anyone special, just a girl, and she’d lost the bet about walking out of the room afterward. They hadn’t hurt her, hadn’t been cruel, but they did leave her in that motel room with a  _ see you around _ and a smile on her lips. A few weeks later, Ron made it clear that as much fun as their evening had been, he preferred men to women and Reggie had never questioned him about it, just accepted and moved on. Now here they were, come full circle and Reg was asking him if he would share a woman, but this time, it  _ was _ about her and she wasn’t just some girl, this was Sunshine.

Ron loved his brother, would never deny him anything and he’d never seen Reg talk about a woman this way. It really wasn’t even a question, at least not for Ron. The question was if Dawn wanted Ron at all, and if she wanted them both, would she want them together? 

“Yeah, Reg, I would share her with you, if she’s willing. Why’nt you go take a shower and we’ll decide how we’re going to ask her, yeah?”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for still being with me so far! I'm really bad at tags, so I'll try to remember to put any warnings in these notes when I post. The only warning for this chapter is some "caveman" behavior by certain male characters.
> 
> ***

Dawn had never been nervous about going to work at the club before, but she changed her clothes four times before she left her flat that afternoon. She hadn't spoken to Reggie since he left that morning, but he had sent her a text. No words, just two emojis, a sunshine and a rose and she'd fumbled with her phone for an inordinate amount of time before responding with a pink heart. She forced herself to move forward with her day after that, taking care of mundane tasks like laundry and dishes and making her bed. She did not, however, change her bedding and she'd never admit it to anyone, but she crawled between her sheets and buried her face in her pillow for a while, just breathing in the masculine scent that clung to the cotton. 

She took a shower around 3, like usual, and she took a little extra time to shave and exfoliate and moisturize more than usual, all the while trying not to think about why she was trying so hard to make her skin soft and smooth to the touch. Picking out clothes was an ordeal, because of course she wanted to look especially nice, but she didn't want it to be obvious that she was trying to look better than usual. She was excited about seeing Reggie, but it was still her job. She finally settled on a soft, stretchy black miniskirt paired with knee-high black suede boots with two inch heels and a sheer white button up blouse with no sleeves. She'd pulled on a beige bra and camisole before buttoning the shirt up to just above her breasts, and it gave the illusion that there was nothing underneath the shirt, especially in the dim light of the club. If they were busy, she'd get plenty of tips for the outfit alone. She kept her makeup simple, eyeliner and mascara, a tinted lip gloss and instead of the high twist she usually confined her hair in, she left it down, sliding a wide black headband into place to keep it out of her face and out of the drinks. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she saw a girl whose eyes were bright, made brighter by the dramatic eyeliner and whose cheeks were slightly flushed without a trace of blush. She most definitely did not see a girl who had full intentions of sleeping with her boss. With a wry smirk at herself in the mirror, she grabbed her purse and headed for the club. 

The line was already forming when she got to the front door. Jimmy, the doorman used his considerable bulk to make a hole in the crowd for her and she slipped inside with a smile of thanks in his direction. It took a moment for her vision to adjust to the change in the light and the first thing she saw was that Ron and Reggie’s booth was empty. She swallowed back a ridiculous swell of disappointment and made her way to the break room, where she could lock her purse in her locker. It didn’t mean anything that they weren’t here, a lot of the time they didn’t show up until after dark. They could even be elsewhere in the club for all she knew. She shook off the thought and made her way behind the bar to start her shift.

It was two hours later, the crowd starting to press in on the bar the way it did on busy nights, and one particularly obnoxious regular was already grating on Dawn’s nerves when she saw them. They’d come in the back, apparently, she hadn’t seen them walk past her and they were sliding into their booth, Ron with no jacket, his shirtsleeves rolled up and Reggie laying his jacket over the back of the booth, the top buttons of his shirt undone in deference to the temperature. It was usually warm in the club, from the press of bodies, but on summer nights it was always worse. One of the waitresses was walking over to the booth, a little extra sway in her step, probably for Reggie’s benefit. Most of the waitresses flirted their asses off with him and he usually responded in kind. It didn’t mean anything, Reggie flirted like he breathed, but it always made them giggle and smile and that played well with the customers. 

Dawn slid three bottles of beer across the bar to the man that had ordered them, taking the bills he shoved at her and moving to the cash register. She saw Ron’s eyes land on her and his lips curved, just a little. She smiled at him as she rang up the sale and moved to the next customer. She mixed his screwdriver on autopilot and took his money, nodding to him when he told her to keep the change. She saw Reggie talking to the waitress, telling her what they wanted to drink, it looked like and he looked at the bar and met Dawn’s eyes. He finished ordering without looking back up at the waitress, his gaze locked on Dawn. She saw the smirk curve over his mouth, the wink he gave her and she felt her face heat up. She smiled and looked away, flustered and took another order. The regular at the end of the bar, one of the more difficult ones, was calling her name and she bit back the groan and eye roll as she turned to take his order. Before she could get to him, the waitress leaned over the bar and stopped her.

“Hey, Dawn, bosses want their usual,” she said and Dawn nodded, quickly pouring two glasses of Johnnie Walker gold, one on the rocks for Ron, because he liked to suck on the ice after he finished the whisky, and one neat for Reggie, because ice watered down the flavor. The waitress whisked them away with a grin and before she could turn back around she felt someone grab her wrist.

***

She was beautiful, running the bar with cool efficiency and a warm smile. She handled the customers well, rarely got an order wrong and Ron was pretty sure she made very good tips, especially on nights like this, where the crowd was three deep around the bar, her smile was bright and inviting and her damn shirt looked like he could see right through it. He knew it had to be an illusion, because Dawn wasn’t cheap enough to flash her breasts to a whole bar just to make more tips, but the idea that if he got a little closer he’d be able to see the sweet curves of her body was enough that he had to take a deep, calming breath. He saw the moment she realized he was watching her, the way her eyes lit up and she smiled at him and he felt himself smile in return, just a little bit.

Reg was ordering their drinks from one of the flighty waitresses that loved to giggle and flirt with him and Ron ignored it, as usual, in favor of watching Dawn behind the bar. He saw when Reggie caught her eye, saw the flush rise on her cheeks as she took another drink order. He watched the absent smile as she poured their drinks and placed them carefully on the waitress’ tray and he was still watching when the man in the blue jacket grabbed her wrist. Ron was on his feet and moving across the room before he even registered that he’d left his seat.

***

Dawn gave an involuntary yelp when the man grabbed her wrist and immediately tried to pull away, but he wasn’t letting go that easy. She opened her mouth to tell him  _ What was his name again? Davey? Danny? _ to get his hands off her and the words died in her throat when she saw Ron. His eyes were dark, angry, his jaw clenched. Every muscle in his body was tense and he was moving across the floor like a shark. Reggie was close behind him, the same angry look on his face, but looking at Ron’s face, Dawn was scared for the idiot holding onto her wrist. 

“Max!” Dawn shouted and her bouncer appeared beside her grabby customer, taking hold of the back of his jacket with one hand and putting enough pressure on the hand that was holding onto Dawn that he was forced to release her wrist. 

“Sorry, Dawn, took me a minute to get through the crowd,” Max was saying and Dawn shook her head.

“Nevermind that, get him the hell out of here before we end up with blood on the floor,” she said, flicking her gaze toward the approaching Kray twins. Max got a look at Ron’s face and went pale, dragging the customer around the far end of the bar to one of the other doors, preferably the one furthest from Ron and Reggie. Dawn signalled to one of the other bartenders and he nodded his understanding, moving down the counter to cover more ground and take care of her customers while Dawn came around the bar to meet Ron on the floor.

“Where the fuck is he?” Ron spat and Dawn reached for his arms, to touch him, to reassure him that she was okay. 

“It’s fine, he’s gone, Ronnie! Max took care of him!” 

“Now I’m gonna take care of him,” Ron ground out.

“Ronnie, please, don’t, I’m okay! I swear, he didn’t hurt me,” she said. Her eyes flicked to Reggie, who was moving up beside his brother. 

“Reggie, I’m fine, I promise,” she told him. She released one of Ron’s arms to put her hand on Reggie’s forearm but he was faster and he took her hand in his own, turning raising her arm so he could see the red marks in the shape of fingers that encircled her wrist. She could feel the tension singing through them both and for a moment she wasn’t sure if she was going to be able to keep the situation under control.

“Back room, now,” Reggie said, sharply and she nodded.

“Okay,” she agreed, looking up at Ron, hoping he was with them. “Ron?” she said and he looked at her and gave a single nod.

“Let’s go,” he said, shortly.

Heart still thumping in her chest, Dawn turned and led the way through the crowd to the break room. Two waitresses were sitting around the battered little table, on break, but with a jerk of his head toward the door, Reggie dismissed them and they scattered. He closed the door behind them and locked it.

Taking her hand, Ron lifted it so he could get a better look at her wrist.

“It’s fine, Ron, really,” Dawn said, looking up at him. “He didn’t hurt me. See, the marks are fading already.”

“I can see where he put his hands on you,” Ron said and she could hear the cold anger in his voice.

“She’s okay, Ronnie,” Reggie said, moving to stand beside them, putting his hand over the fading fingerprints on her wrist so that Ron couldn’t see them anymore. Ron blinked and let go of her hand. Dawn pulled it back slowly, watching Ron gather himself.

“I should get back to the bar,” she said, softly. “They’re slammed out there.”

“No,” Ron said, flatly. “You’re done for the night.”

“Ron, I’m fine, I swear it,” she argued. “There’s no reason for me not to finish the night.”

“There is a reason,” Ron said, stubbornly. “I don’t want you to.”

“But-” she started to argue, then stopped when Ron was suddenly there, right in front of her, close enough that she could see the flecks of green in the darker gray of his eyes. 

He raised his hands and hesitated, as if he was waiting for her to flinch away, but she wasn’t afraid, not of him. She knew, she’d always known, that Ronnie Kray wouldn’t hurt her. Her eyes were wide with surprise though when his fingertips touched her face, and she had a split second to be confused  _ wait, but Ron likes men  _ before he kissed her and she forgot how to think, how to speak, how to breathe, or do anything besides kiss him back.

***


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter here, this is the one that gives it the "E" rating... 
> 
> I rated this fic specifically for this chapter, so no one would be surprised when things got explicit, but if you choose to skip this chapter, I'll post a brief summary in my notes at the beginning of the next chapter.
> 
> ***

Reggie watched while Ron used the lightest touch of his fingers to tilt Dawn’s head back and kiss her. He saw the surprise in her eyes, and he tensed and waited for her to react badly to the kiss, to push Ron away and demand to know what they were playing at, but instead her eyes fell shut and she caught the sides of Ron’s shirt in her hands, fingers fisting in the material. She rose onto her toes, using his chest for balance, leaning into him and Reggie was surprised to find himself getting more than a little turned on by the sight of them. He stepped closer to them and he saw Ron’s eyes flick toward him. He recognized the little whimper that left her throat when Ron pulled back and Reggie moved silently behind her, his body lightly touching hers, pressing her between him and his brother. Her head fell back against his chest and she looked up at him, breasts heaving against Ron’s chest.

“Reg? What-”

“I talked to Ronnie, Sunshine,” he told her, his hands finding her waist, holding her hips against him so he was pressed tight to her ass. Ron’s fingers were trailing down her neck, along her collarbone, lower, over the upper swell of her breasts and she shivered, looking back at him. He was watching his fingers touch her, but he seemed to feel her gaze because his eyes flicked back to hers, briefly. She seemed confused, a little dazed, but she wasn’t pushing them away, either of them and Reggie was going to take that as a good sign.

“Ronnie,” she murmured, reaching up to put her hand on his face. Ron went perfectly still, closing his eyes and leaning into the touch.

“Do you want this, Sunshine? Us? Like this?” Reggie asked her and she looked at him again.

“Like this?”

“He means together, both of us, with you,” Ron said, turning his face to kiss her palm before speaking again. “I want you, Sunshine, want us to be together.”

“All of us?” she said, looking at Ron, then back at Reggie. “You’re asking me to be with… both of you?”

“Would you want that, luv?” Reggie asked, pressing tight against her, knowing she’d feel him, rock hard against the curves of her body. She gasped and Reggie realized that Ron was mirroring him against the front of her body, that every time Reggie pressed from the back, it was pushing her harder against Ron in the front. In her heels, she was a few inches taller and it put her at the perfect height, so that the two of them were hitting all the right buttons, so to speak. They'd have to remember that for later.

“Oh, God, yes,” she breathed, arching between them, rocking her hips in a rhythm that caressed against both of them. “Yes, dammit, I want it, want you, both of you.”

“Good,” Reggie said, sliding his hand into her hair and using it to tilt her head back so he could kiss her.

***

Dawn stepped outside the back door of the club and took a breath of cool night air, trying to get a handle on the feelings, and frankly, the hormones, swirling inside her. They wouldn’t let her go out alone, of course, because the alley behind the club had no streetlights and more than a few times they’d had to run vagrants out after dark. She normally left by the front door, but tonight, she wasn’t up to walking through the crowd. Ron was close enough behind her that she could feel the heat from his body and she didn’t let herself think about it before she leaned back against him, her head falling against his chest. He folded his arms around her from behind and she sighed, feeling him press a kiss against the top of her head, and realizing it felt normal, as if they’d been doing this forever.

They waited while Reggie grabbed his and Ron’s jackets and told the staff that Dawn was leaving for the night. When the door opened and he stepped outside, Ron released her, taking his jacket from Reggie’s hand and putting it over her shoulders. She smiled back at him and when Reggie took hold of her right hand, she slipped her left hand into Ron’s and the three of them left the alley and made their way to Reggie’s car.

Dawn had never seen either Ron or Reggie’s flats. They didn’t live together, but they were in the same building, Ron’s place being just above Reggie’s. Maybe because it was the first one they reached, maybe because of some agreement between the two of them that she wasn’t aware of, they ended up in Reggie’s flat, and Dawn watched with a touch of fascination as the two of them, clearly out of habit, hung their jackets almost in unison and took off their shoes, leaving them near the door. She set her small purse down on the coffee table, taking in her surroundings.

Dark furniture, mostly wood, a cream colored carpet, a few family photos hanging on the wall and a big flat screen tv and entertainment center that dominated the room and took up an entire wall. It was clean, though and Dawn thought that made sense, knowing Reggie’s penchant for control. She turned back around and realized they were watching her. She raised an eyebrow.

“What?” She saw Ron give Reggie a look and couldn’t help but think they were communicating somehow, because Reggie gave a nod.

“I can invite you to sit down, make yourself at home and get you a drink, if that’s what you want, Sunshine,” Reggie said. “Or we could skip the socially acceptable play acting and get straight to what we’re all wanting. It’s your call.”

She looked at the two of them, half a room away, both of them looking at her like they were predators and she was their prey. She saw the tension singing through those two sets of broad shoulders, the way they were balanced on the balls of their feet, the way Ron’s hands were clenching and relaxing, and the way Reggie was biting the inside of his lower lip. She supposed she should have felt intimidated, but she couldn’t deny that the shiver that ran through her was anything but fear.

“I think,” she said, reaching up and slipping her headband off her head, setting it beside her purse on the table, “that the two of you are wearing way too many clothes.”

*** ****

They crossed the room to her in just a few strides and Ron reached her first. She was already reaching up for him when he dragged her against him and caught her mouth in a kiss. He grabbed the back of her thighs and lifted her and she wrapped her legs around his waist without hesitation, her skirt sliding up high enough that it might as well have not been there at all. His fingers slid along the edge of her panties, feeling the heat of her body through the satin. 

Ron felt Reggie on the other side of her and broke the kiss. Dawn whimpered and opened her eyes just in time for Reggie to catch her jaw in one hand and tilt her head back so he could kiss her. Reggie’s hand splayed across her back, supporting her as she leaned back toward him and Ron watched his brother kiss her while he used his leverage and his hold on her thighs to slowly rock her hips against him, stroking against the heat between her thighs until he could see the material of her panties getting wet.

“Bedroom,” Ron said and Reggie raised his head, releasing her mouth and using his hand on her back to lift her so she could put her arms around Ron’s neck again. Reggie led the way quickly to his bedroom and Ron followed behind him, startled when he felt the heat of Dawn’s mouth on his neck, the scrape of her teeth across his skin. 

Ron made a beeline to the bed, kneeling on the mattress, laying her back against the pile of pillows. He saw Reggie out of the corner of his eye, unbuttoning his shirt, dropping it to the carpet and stripping off his undershirt. Ron pressed Dawn down into the pillows with a harsh kiss, then sat back to take off his own shirts, her legs still wrapped around his waist. Dawn’s fingers fumbled at the buttons on her blouse, her lower lip caught between her teeth while she watched him, watched Reggie. 

“Let me help you with that, Sunshine,” Reggie said, approaching the bed, kneeling beside her and grasping the white material with both hands, jerking the two halves apart and sending the buttons flying. She gasped, but not in fear. The sharp intake of breath was pure excitement. She sat up enough for Reggie to get the blouse off her, and he grabbed the bottom hem of her camisole, stripping it over her head. She fell back against the pillows in a lacey bra that was almost the same color as her skin. 

Her eyes were bright, heavy lidded, her cheeks flushed, mouth a lovely shade of red, swollen from their kisses. Her chest was heaving, breasts straining at the bra, the stretchy material of her skirt hiked up around her hips, revealing the black satin panties she wore underneath. She wasn’t an anorexic model like so many women that came in the club, nor was she muscled and hard like some women who spent every spare moment exercising to stay at their desired weight. She was built the way Ron always thought a woman should be, with full breasts, a soft belly, sweetly rounded hips and thighs that were smooth, firm and thick enough that he didn’t feel like he was going to break her when she wrapped them around him. Sliding backward on the bed, Ron ran his hands down her thighs until her legs unwound from around his waist. He slowly unzipped one knee high boot and tugged it off her foot, then the other, and then slipped his fingers under the waist of her skirt and slid the soft material over her hips and down her legs. Ron paused for a moment, just to look at her.

Reggie ran his fingers down her arm and took her hand, tugging gently until she sat up, rose up on her knees in front of him. She reached out and ran her fingers down his chest, his stomach, slipping them under his waistband and tugging at the button of his pants.

“Take these off,” she said, looking up at him, then over at Ron. “Both of you. Pants off.”

Ron liked it that she was giving them orders, it turned him on to no end and he quickly unbuttoned his pants and shoved them down over his hips, leaving them in a heap on the floor and taking off his socks at the same time with quick, efficient movements. He saw Reggie had done the same and was sliding his hands around her, deftly unhooking the clasp on the back of her bra. It fell away from her breasts and Reggie slid it down her arms. Ron moved across the bed, legs on either side of her, catching the lacey waistband of her panties with careful fingers and pulling them over her hips, down her thighs, until he reached her knees and could go no further. Running his palms up the sides of her legs, her hips, around to stroke over the soft plane of her stomach and up to cup her breasts in his hands, Ron pulled her back against his chest, loving the heat of her skin against his own. He watched Reggie lean forward and take over where he left off, pulling her panties down her legs and off, leaving her bare before them.

***

Dawn looked at the man between her legs, at the chiseled jaw and the beautiful, soft mouth and the dark eyes that seemed to look right through her. She saw the muscles that rippled under the skin throughout his shoulders, his chest and stomach. She took in the thick erection that rose in front of him, pressed against his belly, the tip brushing his navel, already wet and shining with precum and she could feel Ron, just as large, as thick, long and hard, nestled against the curve of her bottom, pressed between her cheeks and she swallowed, hard. She wasn’t a blushing virgin, she’d seen penises before, in many shapes and sizes, but she’d never seen one quite like this, at least not in real life. She’d sure as hell never had two of them pressed up against her at the same time. She felt the flesh between her thighs get wetter, slicker and from the way Reggie’s eyes darkened, she knew he saw it. 

"Wanna taste you, Sunshine," Reggie told her, his voice even more rough than usual. She nodded, her mouth gone dry. He grasped her hips and pulled her to the edge of the mattress, sliding down to kneel on the carpet. The movement pulled her off Ron's lap and she felt him move from behind her. She let out a soft yip in surprise as Reggie pulled her legs over his shoulders and kissed the inside of her thigh. He kissed one side, then the other, higher and higher until she felt the heat of his breath against her center. She cried out when his tongue touched her, her hips rising off the mattress. Her hands fisted in the sheets at her sides and her back arched as Reggie ran his tongue over her, dipping inside and then back up and then the wet heat of Ron's mouth closed over her breast. She reached down, fingers threading through Reggie's hair, her other hand falling on the back of Ron's head, holding them to her. Reggie slid his hands under her, lifted her hips to get the angle he wanted and Ron moved to her other breast, drawing her nipple between his teeth, gently biting at the hard nub. 

She reached out, running her hand over Ron's body, feeling her way down his chest until she found what she was looking for. She wrapped her fingers around the thick shaft and he went still. She tightened her hold, a firm squeeze.

"Come here, Ronnie," she said, her tongue tracing over her lower lip, and he shifted on the bed, let her guide him until she could reach him the way she wanted. 

It took a lot of effort to focus with Reggie's mouth working sorcery between her legs, but it was worth it as she looked at him, her fingers wrapped around the length of him, not quite touching her thumb. The head of his cock was wet and she gave in to the urge to taste him, her tongue darting out to flick across the tip. He tasted salty and musky and she glanced up at his face as she closed her lips around him. 

He made a sound, low in his throat that could only be called a growl, his eyes burning into her, watching as she swirled her tongue around him and took him deeper. His hips bucked toward her, pushing him deeper and she could feel the tension in his body and knew he was holding himself back. She gripped the base of his shaft and used her hand to stroke him in time with her mouth. It was going to take some practice before she would be able to take all of him, of either of them, into her mouth, but she was willing to put in the time if they were. 

Ron wasn't complaining about her lack of ability. His hand was fisted in her hair and his breathing was getting ragged. Reggie was still there, between her legs, his tongue stroking her higher until he pushed her over the edge and she screamed her orgasm around Ron's cock.

Ron pulled her back a moment later, both of them struggling to even out their breathing and both of them failing. Dawn was still trying to pull her thoughts back together when she realized they were moving around her, that Reggie was leaning back on the bed, his legs over the side of the mattress and she was straddling his hips, Ron standing behind her, kissing the side of her neck, just once, before Reggie was pulling her down to kiss him. She tasted herself on his lips and then she felt the blunt tip of his cock pushing against her center. She moaned against his mouth and her eyes went wide as he entered her and her body stretched around him, an inch at a time. He pulled her down to his chest, his arms around her as he pulled her down onto him.

“Ah, Sunshine, you feel amazing,” he told her. “Am I hurting you?”

“A little,” she said breathlessly.

  
“Do you want me to stop?”

“Don’t you fucking dare.”

She heard him chuckle, softly.

Her nails were digging into his chest by the time he was completely inside her and the sweet burn of her muscles being forced to accommodate him sent a shudder through her body. Reggie’s hands stroked down her sides, her back, fingers spreading over her bottom, gripping, holding her tight and still against him. She startled when she felt another touch, Ron, stroking a finger lightly down the cleft of her ass, jerking against Reggie in surprise.

“Shh,” he said, holding her still while the light touch continued. “You feel that inside you?” She nodded and he continued, murmuring in her ear. “Feel good?” 

She nodded again and then her breath caught when she felt Ron’s mouth on her, his hands below Reggie’s, fingers pressing into her flesh as his tongue traced over her anus, pressed against it. It felt strange, different, forbidden - and amazing. She shivered, her hips shifting, lifting to him and Reggie spoke again, his breath warm on her ear.

“There’s another cock like this behind you, Sunshine,” he told her, “Ronnie’s going to push all of it inside that amazing ass, fill you up.” She heard a whimper, realized it had come from her own throat. “It’s going to hurt and it’s going to feel incredible at the same time. Some part of Ronnie is gonna be very satisfied that it hurts, it’ll turn him on even more, just like the way I love how hard you had to work to take me all the way inside you.” 

She felt her body clenching around him just from the words he was saying in her ear. Ron had pressed a fingertip inside her, past the tight ring of muscle, slowly caressing and she realized he had something on his hand, something slick, some kind of oil and she had never realized she had so many nerves there, or that they were apparently connected directly to her clitoris. She was rocking her hips toward him, shifting Reggie inside her as she did, which only fueled the need to move. Ron’s finger left her, then returned to spread more of the oil over her entrance. He leaned over her, his chest against her back, pressing her against Reggie, the length of his cock rubbing in the slick oil between her cheeks, his hand sliding into her hair and catching it in a tight grip, using it to turn her face to him. Her eyes fluttered back and she moaned. He tightened his grip, just a little bit.

“Look at me, Sunshine,” he rasped and she made herself focus on his face, inches away. “I want you to look at me and tell me you want this and I want to be sure you understand what you’re asking for.” Dawn swallowed, hard at the intensity on his face, the hard line of his tight jaw and she nodded. She felt his hand between them, then the smooth head of him rubbing across her entrance, back and forth. “I want to push this inside you, feel you so fucking tight around me and know it hurts and I want to know that you want it anyway. ‘M not a gentle person, you know that. There’s been times I wanted it to hurt and didn’t care how much, but not now, not you. Want it to hurt, yeah, but I don’t want to hurt you. Do you understand? Do you still want this?” His eyes were almost black, staring at her, searching her face and she had some idea how difficult it was for him to say the things he was saying, and the things he wasn’t saying  _ Do you still want this, do you still want ME? _ how important it was that he felt the way he did with her. Reggie had gone completely still beneath her. He understood, possibly more than she did, how important that moment was, to Ron, for all of them, for any possible future where they could make this work between the three of them.

“I understand, Ron,” she said, closing the distance between their faces to kiss him, softly. He released his breath in a trembling rush, kissed her back and spoke against her lips.

“You want this?” he asked, pressing against her, the blunt oil slicked tip of his cock pushing through the muscles, just barely.

“God, yes,” she breathed, her breath catching in her throat as he buried the head of his cock in her ass.

He stood, taking his weight off her back, releasing his grip on her hair and she felt his hand on the base of her spine, fingers spread wide, holding her in place. She turned her face back to Reggie to find him watching her. He held her gaze as Ron pushed forward and her eyes widened. Her breathing sped up as her body stretched around Ron’s penetration. It hurt, yes, but it was also sending white hot sparks of sensation, pure, almost too intense straight to her core. Dawn had always known that her pain/pleasure sensors were a little confused, but she’d never felt anything like this. Ron drew back, just a little and she felt the warm drizzle of oil where they were joined before he pressed back in, a little further this time, the slick liquid easing the way. A small sound left her mouth, something like a whimper, pain and pleasure in one sound and Reggie kissed her, swallowing the deeper moan when Ron pushed forward again. Reggie shifted beneath her, rocked into her, his pelvis pressed against her clitoris, sending even more waves of sensation through her body. He moved slowly, just a little, just enough to give her a softer pleasure as Ron rocked himself ever deeper into her virgin ass, delivering a devastating, punishing intensity that had her spine bowing, her nails digging into Reggie’s chest, her mouth open and her breath coming in short, sharp pants. She heard something like a growl from Ron’s throat behind her and he buried the last inch of his cock with one hard thrust, slamming his hips against her and she cried out, almost a sob, arching back. Ron’s arms came around her from behind, one across her stomach, the other across her breasts, holding her tight against his chest so she couldn’t move. She was shaking, small helpless noises escaping her throat and she felt Ron’s mouth on the side of her neck, her jaw, his lips against her ear.

“Shh… be still,” he murmured against her ear. “Such a good girl, Sunshine, taking all of me in that ass, Reg’s cock filling up your pussy. So fucking tight and you cried so pretty for us.”

Just the deep rasp of his voice spilling the dirty words in her ear had Dawn biting her lip, trembling and clenching involuntarily around both of them. She couldn’t stop the whimpering moan that left her lips. Her body was adjusting, muscles slowly relaxing around him so the pain faded to a delicious burning ache. Her breathing slowed and she closed her eyes. Ron misread her stillness.

“Tell me to stop, Dawn,” he whispered and she turned her head so she could see him.

“Ronnie Kray, if you stop now, I’m going to kill you,” she told him and the uncertainty left his eyes. She heard Reggie chuckle and looked down at him. 

“Tell us what you want, Sunshine,” he said, his thumbs tracing her hip bones and lower. Dawn bit her lip. She’d never been good at talking in bed. She knew what she wanted, but making herself say it was another matter. Then again, they’d crashed through more than a few firsts for her in the last few hours and in comparison, talking dirty was a pretty small thing.

“I want you to fuck me, both of you,” she said, her voice unsteady at first, but more firm as she spoke. “I want you to fill me up, again and again until none of us can take any more and then I want you both to come inside me. I want to fall asleep between the two of you with marks and bruises on my body from your hands and your mouths and my thighs slick from the mess we made. I want to feel the ache from tonight between legs every time I take a step for days, so I can close my eyes and remember exactly how this feels.”

“Fucking hell, Sunshine,” Ron growled in her ear, his hips flexing against her. “Wasn’t sure I could be any more turned on, but Christ, that mouth!”

“Ronnie,” Reggie said, the rumble of his voice barely discernible from Ron’s growling tone. “Stop talking and let’s give our woman what she wants.”

***

There were advantages to being twins, to knowing someone since before birth, being so completely in tune with them that you could anticipate their movements before they made them. Ron released his hold on Dawn’s upper body and Reggie drew her down onto his chest. Ron’s hands caught her hips, shifting them, tilting them to the perfect angle and they were in perfect sync when they started to move. Ron kept his hold on her hips, Reggie gripped her thighs and they moved her as much as they moved themselves, drawing back and then thrusting deep, pulling her down onto both of them at once and Dawn cried out, harshly. Reggie almost stopped at the shout, but her hips were moving between them and he realized it wasn’t a pain sound.

The pace they set was harsh, not fast, but relentless and instead of an alternating rhythm between the two of them, where one of them filled her on the other’s withdrawal, they moved in lock-step, driving into her in unison, and she took them both, meeting them stroke for stroke, her head thrown back, fingernails leaving little crescent shaped punctures in Reggie’s chest. He felt the tension singing through her body, felt her tighten around him and knew she was close, which was good, since he’d been holding himself carefully in check for a while.

“Come for us, Sunshine,” he rasped and she moaned, her teeth breaking the skin on her lower lip. He felt her clench, shudder and she shouted, wordlessly as she came apart in their hands. Reggie drove himself deep inside her and heard his own hoarse shout as he spilled into her. A moment later he heard Ron’s deep growl, saw him bury his face against the back of Dawn’s neck. Ron’s teeth sank into her skin as he slammed his hips against her and stayed, shuddering. Dawn gasped and whimpered as she clenched around them again, a fresh wave of pleasure washing through her as she came again. 

They were still for a moment, and the only sound was the harsh drag of breath into their lungs. Dawn was trembling between them, but her eyes were closed and her head rested on Reggie’s chest, the look on her face peaceful, content. Ron was still above her, his feet on the floor between Reggie’s and Reggie could feel the fine tremble in Ron’s leg where it was pressed against his own.

“Ronnie,” Reggie said, quietly and Ron’s eyes opened. He understood without words and Dawn made a soft sound in her throat when Ron slid out of her. 

Reggie stroked a hand down her back, kissing the top of her head, and she mumbled what might have been a protest when Ron put his arms around her and rolled her into his chest, lifting her off Reggie. She sighed and cuddled close in his arms while Reggie stood up and pulled back the blanket and top sheet on his bed. Reggie watched with something like fascination as Ron laid Dawn on the bed, immediately lying down beside her. He didn’t think he’d ever seen Ron touch someone that carefully, that gently. Dawn rolled to her side and reached out for him, drawing him close and Ron slid his arm around her waist, his head resting against the swell of her breasts. Reggie looked at them for a moment, just taking in the peaceful look on Ron’s face, the complete lack of tension, of anger that usually showed in the line of his jaw.

“Reg,” he heard and he blinked. Dawn was watching him, her fingers stroking lightly over Ron’s shoulders. “Come to bed with us.”

He moved to the bed, turned off the lamp on the nightstand and plunged the room into darkness, relieved only by the dim glow of the street light outside the window. He slid between the sheets, pulling the blankets up over all of them and Dawn shifted so that she was turned slightly more toward him. He moved closer, until he was pressed against her back and she sighed, turning her face up and toward him. He kissed her, softly and felt her smile against his mouth before she turned back, laying her head against the pillows and his chest, just under his chin. With a little shifting, he slid his arm under the pillow, under her head and wrapped the other one around her. She caught his hand, pulling it to her chest and holding it, just above where Ron was nestled against her breasts. She sighed and he felt her relax. On the other side of her, Ron shifted and the arm around her waist moved, hand coming to rest on Reggie’s hip. Surprised at how content he felt, Reggie fell asleep to the sound of their breathing, the comfortable weight of Ron’s hand on his hip and the feeling of Dawn’s heartbeat against their entwined fingers.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To those of you who are still with me, thanks for hanging in!  
> ***

***

A year ago, if anyone had told Dawn that she would be living in an East End London flat, engaged in a three way polyamorous relationship with two men who were not only brothers, but identical twins and her bosses as well, she would have accused them of being high. Even as she lived it, she had trouble believing it at times. Then one of them would touch her, kiss her, pull her close and it would ground her. Everything about it, about them was real.

They went on dates, lunches, dinners, days spent lying on the beach on rare sunny days and evenings strolling down a carnival midway, mornings at an open air farmers market and lazy afternoons watching movies. Most nights she spent at one or the other of their flats and while it was usually the three of them together, there were times when she was with just one of them, although on those nights, the missing twin would usually join them in bed before the sun rose. 

When she was alone with Reggie, he liked to fill the jacuzzi tub with hot water and scented bubbles and pull her to lay back against him. Sitting between his legs, reclining against the firm, warm muscle of his chest, she would turn her face to his neck and close her eyes while he ran his hands gently over her skin. Lazy strokes over her arms and shoulders, fingertips circling her nipples, palms cupping her breasts before stroking down her stomach. It didn’t always turn sexual. Sometimes he would reach her waist and just start working his way back up and they would lay there until the water turned cold. Other times, though, those clever fingers would slip between her thighs while his other hand wrapped around her waist, holding her tightly in place against his chest while he played her body like an instrument. The steel band of his arm held her down when her orgasms arched her back and she cried out his name. Eventually he would release her and she would turn to him. They made love in the tub, or he’d pull himself up onto the side of the tub and she’d get her revenge, driving him to the edge and over it with her mouth. Other times, they’d leave the water in the tub and move down the hall naked and dripping to end up in his bed, soaking the sheets.

The nights when she was alone with Ron, she got to see a different man than he was when Reggie was there with them. He was softer, less sure of himself, as if without Reggie, he wasn’t sure exactly how to behave. The first night they spent in his flat together, Dawn had turned on the radio after dinner and been humming to a song while she stood in the kitchen, rinsing off their plates in the sink. He’d come up behind her, pressed close and she smiled and swayed against him in time to the music. His quiet words against her hair  _ Want to dance with you, Sunshine, but ‘m not sure I know how _ had her turning to look at him, sliding her arms around his neck. His hands settled around her waist naturally and with just a little nudging, she had him swaying to the music with her. Smiling, she’d laid her head against his chest, heard his heart thundering under her ear and told him  _ This is perfect, Ronnie _ . They danced in his kitchen for a half hour that night and later, Dawn’s hands gripped his headboard tightly while he taught himself another activity he’d never had the opportunity to try. He was a fast learner and he knew her, the sounds she made, the tension in her body. He let her reactions guide him and if she’d been able to form coherent thought, she’d have given him a gold star. She was trembling and breathless when he kissed her and she tasted herself on his mouth as he pressed into her. The slow press of him stretched the hypersensitive flesh and sent tiny orgasms shuddering through her before he was even fully sheathed in her body. He made love to her slowly, sweetly and when it was over, she couldn’t move, her limbs feeling weak and boneless. She protested with a soft sound when he rolled his weight off of her, but was beyond grateful when he returned with a warm cloth and cleaned the mess from her thighs, from himself, before he got into bed and pulled her into the curve of his body. When she woke in the morning, Reggie was there, cuddled against her, and Ron lost some of that softness, that openness. He was still her Ronnie, but not the same one that had made love to her the night before.

She kept working at the club and she kept her flat, even if she didn’t spend many nights there. Ron and Reggie tried to convince her to give it up, the bartending and the flat both, but she refused. She needed to keep something that was hers, to maintain a sense of self. 

Word travelled fast in the East End, and Ron and Reggie made no effort to be discrete or hide their relationship with Dawn. Reggie would kiss her, arms around her body, holding her against him, and then he would twirl her around and into Ron’s hands. Dawn would smile and laugh and raise herself onto her toes to meet Ron’s kiss, and none of them cared who was around to see. In the weeks that followed, there was no end to the teasing from the waitresses at the club, but it wasn’t malicious and it didn’t bother her. There were others, though, that weren’t so harmless. 

“Whore” was the most common insult, but there were any number of things Dawn had heard from people who knew about her relationship with the Kray twins. She was their toy, their plaything, their pet, and none of the mouths spouting those accusations stopped to think about who they were insulting. She put the first one down herself, a slimy little man who’d had too much to drink and made a comment about the Kray twins’ pet whore. She blinked in shock and then, without even thinking, she was swinging, her fist connecting with his mouth and he was falling backward, landing hard on the floor, Reggie’s knee on his chest before he’d even registered that he was down. She was glad it was Reggie and not Ron standing beside her when it happened, because Ron would not have had the self restraint to stop hitting him and let Max the bouncer drag the man off the floor and out of the club. That was when they stopped leaving her alone in the club. On the nights she worked, at least one of them would be there, often both of them. They conducted their business as usual, but she was never without one of them or one of their boys at the very least, keeping an eye out while she was working. Most often it was Teddy that ended up sitting at the end of the bar, and the two of them would talk when things were slow. She liked Teddy with his baby face, his quick smile and his often inappropriate humor.

They couldn't be with her every minute though, and she wouldn't have wanted that in any case. She loved being with them, loved that they wanted to protect her, the way they made her feel cherished, but she was still her own person and she wasn't going to give that up. She insisted that at least one night each week, she returned to her flat after work and spent the night alone. They didn't like it, but they accepted it. 

It was one of those nights on a Sunday in July when she locked the door of the club and turned to start walking home. She heard the scuff of a shoe on the pavement, smelled cigar smoke and paused. 

"Ron, we've talked about this," she said, smiling as he stepped into view.

“Sorry,” he said, holding out his hand and looking completely unapologetic. With an eye roll and a sigh, she took his hand and let him pull her to him. He kissed her forehead and tucked her against his side before he started walking in the direction of her flat.

“You know it’s supposed to be my night alone, Ronnie,” she told him, chidingly, but without any real anger or even annoyance.

“I know. Still not lettin’ you walk home alone in the dark,” he said with a shrug. “‘S not a safe neighborhood.” She smiled and leaned her head against him as they walked. 

“Where’s Reg?”

“Someone’s been giving one of our clients some trouble. Reggie’s sorting it out with a few of the boys,” Ron said and she went quiet. 

They didn’t talk about their off the books business with her much, but they didn’t lie about it or try to hide it either. If she asked, Reggie might try to change the subject, but he would tell her if she really wanted to know. Ron never hesitated. If she was asking, she knew she was possibly getting an answer she didn’t really want to hear and she was an adult and made her own choices. Someone had been causing trouble at one of the businesses that paid the Krays for protection and Reggie was dealing with the troublemakers. She didn’t ask who they were, or what their repercussions were going to be. Depending on what they’d done, who they were and who they’d been messing with, they might get a beating, or it might be worse. Ron was with her, though, so whoever it was would probably still be alive come morning, unless they’d done something unforgivable. Reggie had a lot more self control in violent situations and Ron was more likely to be unable to stop until someone stopped breathing.

Early on, she’d spent a long night thinking about that, about Ron’s darker side. She’d turned it over in her mind, looked at it from every angle and decided that she could accept it. They lived in a hard world and she’d known who these men were from the beginning. They never tried to hide it or sugarcoat it. As far as she knew, Ron had never hurt an innocent person, never hurt a woman or a child. He could be short tempered and brutal, but then so could Reggie. So could a lot of men, for that matter. There was blood on their hands, but she never felt afraid of them, either of them. Even on a bad day, without his meds, she trusted that Ron would never hurt her. She’d put away the thoughts after that night, never looked back at them. Nobody ever moved forward by looking back.

Her flat wasn’t far from the club, it was one of the reasons she’d rented it and she paused as they approached the front of the building, stepping away from Ron’s side to look up at him.

“Thanks for walking me home,” she said with a smile. 

“Let me come up with you,” he said and Dawn sighed. She wanted to. She wanted him to walk into her flat with her and kick off their shoes and help each other take off their clothes before they got into a hot shower. She wanted his big hands on her skin, washing away the smell of cigarette smoke and too many people, and then she wanted him to climb into her bed and hold her. She wanted it so much that it was actually a struggle to make herself tell him no, but she was determined not to let herself get swallowed up completely.

“I can’t, Ronnie. I need this, it’s important,” she told him.

“I miss you when you’re not with us,” he said. “And I don’t like you being here alone, so far away from us both. Anything could happen.” She gave him a smile and shook her head.

“I miss you too, both of you,” she admitted. “But I’m a big girl and I’m perfectly fine. I know how to use a phone if something were to happen and I know how to use the gun you gave me. Now, kiss me, so I can go upstairs and take off these heels.” He kissed her again and watched her as she walked toward her building. She paused in the doorway and looked back at him.

“I’ll be fine, Ronnie, so don’t make Teddy sit outside in his car all night again, okay? Besides, who the hell in their right mind would try to mess with me, knowing he’d have to take on the damn Kray twins?” she asked with a lopsided grin. He finally gave her a ghost of a smile and she was still chuckling when she closed the door behind her.

***


	7. Chapter 7

***

Dawn slid her key into the deadbolt and turned it, then started to unlock the knob and realized it was already unlocked when it turned under her hand. She opened her purse and pulled out her cell phone, unlocking the screen and pulling Ron's number up, her thumb hovering over the Send button as she slowly opened the door. She stepped into her living room, holding her breath, and flipped on the lights. 

The woman was sitting on the sofa in a stylish black dress, slender legs crossed, golden hair piled high on her head in some complicated twist. She was beautiful, but then, with the amount of plastic surgery she'd had, she couldn't be anything else. Her makeup was perfect, as if it were freshly applied, even at 1:00 in the morning. Then again, her mother had always prided herself on never being seen with a hair out of place. 

"Mom," Dawn said, "what the hell are you doing here?"

"It wasn't exactly difficult. Really, Dawnie, you should be in a building with better security," Leann Jackson said, looking around at the small flat with something like disdain. 

"It's Dawn, Mom, and I like this building. I meant what are you doing in London?" Dawn said, pressing the Send button on her phone. The beeping "No Signal" alert made her look at the screen, confused.

"It won't work," Leann said, holding up a small black device. "Blocks cell phone signals in a 50 yard radius, or so I'm told. Wouldn't do to have the wrong people tracking my cell signal. Who were you going to call?"

"None of your business," Dawn snapped.

"One of those boys I saw you with last evening? I have to say, I'm impressed, Dawnie, they are a treat to look at. I’ve never had twins before. Are they as good in bed as they look?"

"Like I said, it's none of your business," Dawn said. "Why are you in London?"

"I'm here because I thought you would handle it better if I came, as opposed to the alternative," Leann told her and Dawn felt her stomach drop.

"What does he want?"

"He wants you to come home. You've been away long enough."

"I'm not going back," Dawn said and Leann sighed. 

"Don't be difficult, you know how he hates it when you get defiant."

"I don't care! I left California to get away from him and all the bullshit that comes with him. I'm not going back to that!" Dawn all but shouted. 

"What makes you think you have a choice?" Leann said, coldly. 

Dawn was shaking her head, backing toward her bedroom. 

"No, no this isn't going to happen," she said, turning around and darting through the door, yanking her underwear drawer and grabbing the pistol she had hidden beneath her socks. Ron had insisted she have it if she was going to be spending nights alone at her flat.  _ Remember, Sunshine, this is not a safe world. If you won't let us be here to keep you safe, we have to know you can protect yourself.  _ She was pulling back the slide as she turned back around, but a strong hand knocked the gun from her grasp and the hand clamped down on her wrist. She cursed, looking up at the impassive face of Joseph, her father's right hand man. Her father, Tommy Jackson, one of the most powerful men in Los Angeles and the most lethal. 

"Joey, let me go, please, I can't go back to him," she said, knowing it was useless.

"Sorry, Sweetheart, you know better than that," he told her. Tears of frustration stung her eyes and she wished like hell that she’d said yes when Ron asked to come up with her. As Leann grabbed her suitcase from the closet and started shoving clothes into it, she glanced at her daughter.

“If there’s anything special that you want to take, you’d better get it now. You won’t be coming back here.”

Dawn choked back a sob, refusing to cry, and grabbed at the panda bears that were cuddled in among her pillows. Tears blinded her and she gripped the little bear tightly in her hand when Joey pulled her from the room, not realizing that the velcro had given way and the second panda was still on her bed.

“Take her to the car, Joseph,” Leann said. He led her down the steps and out of the building, to a waiting towncar, Dawn kicking and fighting with every step.

***

Dawn wasn't answering her phone. It was nearly noon and Reggie had been calling for an hour. It wasn't like her not to answer and he was getting agitated. He jogged up the flight of stairs to Ron's door and pounded on it. His brother yanked it open, standing in the doorway in his trousers and undershirt, his shirt in his hands, the butt of his gun sticking out of the inner pants holster. They didn’t usually go armed in their own homes, at least not so early in the morning and Reggie knew that Ron knew something was wrong.

"Sunshine isn't answering her phone, Reg," Ron told him, pulling his shirt on over the gun.

“I know, I’m headed to her place to find out what’s going on,” Reggie told him and Ron shoved his feet into his shoes and followed his brother out the door without bothering to button his shirt.

Reggie carried his own gun at the small of his back, uncomfortable for driving, and he pulled it out and laid it on the seat between them as they got in the car.

“Something is wrong, Reggie, something bad has happened,” Ron said and Reggie could hear the note in Ron’s voice that said he was barely holding on to himself.

“We don’t know that, Ronnie, not yet,” he told him, even though his own gut was telling him the same thing.

“We do, Reg. I left Teddy to watch her flat last night. He’s not answering either,” Ron said and Reggie felt sick. Ron was right. Teddy would never ignore Ron’s call, especially not when he was watching over Dawn.

“Take your pills, Ronnie, before we get there. Going to need you clear headed today,” Reggie said, grimly. He heard the sound of the pill bottle and pressed harder on the gas pedal.

***

Her flat was locked when they arrived. Teddy’s car had been sitting outside, but it was empty and Ron’s heartbeat was pounding in his ears when they reached her door. Reggie unlocked it and they stepped into the silent room, both of them with their hands on their weapons. The room was empty and Ron crossed it quickly to Dawn’s bedroom, pushing the door open.

Her dresser drawers were open, half empty, clothes strewn across the room. Her laptop was gone, but, Ron realized, the power cord for it was still plugged into the wall. He moved to the dresser and swept his hand through the top drawer.

“Her gun’s not here. She didn’t leave on her own, Reg, she hated that gun, she wouldn’t have taken it. She would never have taken it out of the drawer unless she intended to use it, to protect herself.”

“I know, Ronnie, she wouldn’t have left us like this, without a word. Someone came in here and took her,” Reggie said, picking up a small stuffed panda from her bed, running his finger over the fuzzy toy, the scratchy velcro on its paw. 

It had a mate, another panda, and the paws velcroed together like they were holding hands. They’d given the silly things to her one day after spending a ridiculous amount of money to win them out of a claw machine they’d come across when they were out together for an afternoon. She had laughed and hugged the little bears to her chest and the two of them had puffed up like a couple of heroes. It had been childish and stupid and it was something Reggie would always remember. She’d treasured the cheap little toys, kept them on her bed and informed them that her little bears always slept with her whenever Reggie and Ron weren’t there. He looked around, moved the pillows and didn’t find the other bear.

“I haven’t seen any blood, Reg, have you?”

“She’s not dead, Ronnie. She was alive and conscious when they took her,” Reggie told him, holding up the bear. “She took the other bear. Nobody who came here to hurt her or take her away would’ve bothered with the toy.  _ She _ took it.”

A cell phone rang and both of them jumped, yanking their phones out of their pockets. Reggie’s phone was flashing with an unfamiliar number.

“H’lo?” he answered it.

“Is this Reginald Kray?” came a female voice.

“Who’s askin’?”

“My name is Christine, I’m a nurse at St. Dominic’s Hospital. A man was brought in last night, severely beaten. We think his attackers thought he was dead. Some kids found him in an alley and got him here.”

“What’s that to do with me?” Reggie asked.

“Well, he had you listed as his In Case of Emergency contact in his phone. His name is Theodore, Theodore Smith? Do you know him?”

“I’ll be right there. Tell him we’re coming,” he snapped, hanging up the phone and heading for the door.

“What is it, Reg?” Ron asked, following him out of the flat and down the stairs.

“It’s Teddy. He’s at St. Dominic’s. Someone tried to beat him to death, but he fucking survived. He knows who did this, Ronnie. He can tell us who took Sunshine.”

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I was writing this, I wasn't entirely happy with how it was turning out. I feel like it got my point across, but I still have the urge to poke at it and make changes... Anyway, thanks for sticking with me!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgive me ahead of time, I'm really no good at writing accents, so writing an accent with the added difficulty of the person barely being able to speak was a bit of a challenge. Also, it has been pointed out to me by a good friend that I am horrible to my characters, so, yeah, rough times ahead.
> 
> ***

***

Teddy barely looked human, lying on the stark white hospital bed, his face swollen and purple, skin split above his eye, across his cheekbones, his mouth looking like raw hamburger. Ron stared at him, looking small and too still. They'd known Teddy all their lives. He was a small man, but tough, a scrappy fighter and loyal to a fault. He always had a quick grin and a quicker mouth. When Ron had told Teddy about Dawn and that their sexual relationship was over, Teddy had taken it in stride, and he'd never held it against her. He had stayed in his place as Ron's nearly constant companion. He had watched over Dawn when Ron and Reggie couldn't and here he was, lying in this bed, beaten within an inch of his life, almost without a doubt because he'd been trying to protect her for them. 

"I wanted to sedate him, but he insisted he had to talk to you first," said the nurse who had called them.

"Thanks, we'll be quick," Reggie said, and Ron waited until she left the room before he pulled the metal chair close to the bed and leaned close. 

"Teddy," he said, quietly. Teddy stirred, his eyes slitting open. 

"R'n?" he mumbled. 

"'M here, Teddy, Reg too. Who did this to you?"

"W'rs D'wn? D'you h've 'er?"

"No, Teddy, she's gone. Did you see what happened?" Reggie asked. Teddy took a raspy breath and Reggie grabbed the styrofoam cup with the bendy straw from the bedside table and slipped the straw carefully between Teddy's lips. They waited while he sipped the water, returning the cup to the table as Teddy started to speak. 

"Th'were draggn' her out th' buildn', c'pla big f'llas and a pr'tty bl'nd l'dy. D'wn w's kickin' and bitin', but they we're sh'vn 'er into a car. I tr'd t' st'p 'm, R'nnie, 'swr I did," he said, tears shining in his bloodshot eyes. 

"Ssh, Teddy, we know you did, you'd never let anyone hurt Dawn, not without a fight," Ron told him, carefully taking the smaller man's hand, trying not to touch the scraped knuckles and splinted fingers. 

"Did you see who they were, Teddy? Did you recognize them at all?" Reggie asked. 

“W’re ‘Mericans, R’g. H’rd a n’me wh’n th’y w’re l’vn. T’mmy J’cks’n. Th’ w’re wr’kn f’r T’mmy J’cks’n, R’ggie. Th’s wh’ took ‘er,” Teddy said, his voice barely audible.

“Okay, Teddy, we got it. You did good, okay? Why don’t you let the nurse give you some drugs, so you can rest. You did a good job. We’ll take it from here. You rest and heal, ‘cuz you know when we bring our Sunshine home, she’s gonna want to hug you and probably even kiss that ugly face, so you gotta heal up so you don’t scare her, okay?” Reggie said, and Ron signalled for the nurse. She came bustling in with a syringe and Ron and Reggie left the hospital room. They were silent until they reached the car.

“He said Tommy Jackson, Ron,” Reggie said. 

“I heard him.”

“Tommy Jackson runs Los Angeles.”

“He does.”

“You think our Sunshine was his? Wife, or sister or daughter-”

“I think,” Ron said, in a cold, flat tone, “that she left Los Angeles and came here for a reason. I think she never told us about her family for a reason and I think that she was fighting them when they took her because she didn't want to go back there. Whatever she was, she's not his anymore. She's ours."

"Yes, she is," Reggie agreed. "She's our girl, and they came here, to our city, broke into her flat and dragged her out. They tried to kill Teddy and left him in the street."

"They put their hands on her, Reg, and they hurt her," Ron said, his voice as dark as Reggie had ever heard it.

"We'll be getting on a plane then," Reggie said, starting the car and pulling out onto the road. 

***

Dawn lay silent, curled up as tightly as she could, a small stuffed panda bear pressed to her chest. She stared at the wall, but she didn't see it. Her mind was far away from Los Angeles, in London, where Reggie and Ron would be tearing the city apart looking for her. She wondered if they'd found poor Teddy's body. She'd asked Ron not to make him watch her building, but Ronnie never listened when it came to her security. When he'd come after them, shouting at Joey to let her go  _ Oi, get your mitts off her! _ she'd fought harder, wanted to scream for him to run, but she couldn't and instead she had to watch them beat him until he was lying, unmoving in the street. 

She cried for Teddy, who was the sweetest tough guy she knew. She cried for Ron and Reggie, who would be scared for her, angry and helpless because they had no way of knowing where she'd gone. She cried for herself, because she knew why her father had dragged her back here and if he got his way, she would never see Reggie or Ronnie again. 

***

She'd been back in the States for more than 12 hours when he came. Her father entered the room with a quick, sure step, as usual, a king entering his castle. She was sitting on the edge of the sofa wearing faded jeans with holes in the knees and thighs and a spaghetti strap tank top. Her bare feet were tucked under her and she’d refused her mother’s efforts to get her to put on something more feminine, to do her makeup and hair. She had no desire to look nice for her father.

“Dawn, baby, I’m so happy to have you back home with us,” he said, coming toward her with his arms out and Dawn jerked back before he could touch her.

“This isn’t my home, not anymore. Your trained fucking gorillas came to my home and kidnapped me, on your orders, remember?” she spat and he laughed.

“Still have your spirit, I see. That’s good, it will help you in the future.”

“Help me what? Kill you and leave this fucking prison?” His face darkened.

"Watch your mouth, girl," he warned her. "Being my daughter only gets you so much leeway."

"Being your daughter is the last thing in the world I want to get anything from."

She should have expected it, but she had spent the last year living with men who didn't believe in hitting women. The pain exploded across her face, reverberating in her bones from the point of impact on her left cheekbone. She gasped with shock, tears sprang to her eyes, but she didn't cry out. She just turned back to him with a murderous glare. 

"If you weren't my daughter, I'd have killed you for running away after I made arrangements for you, for this family. You shamed me, Dawn, and only because of my love for you and your mother did I let you spend your year overseas. She begged me to give you room to breathe and I did. I'm told you had your fun in London, with your twin boy toys, but now it's time for you to return home and do your duty to this family."

Dawn stood up. She was nowhere near as tall as her father, but she was going to face him on her feet. 

"I made a life for myself in London. One that didn't have anything to do with you, or this family. I was happy and yeah, I had my fun, as you put it, except Reggie and Ron aren't boys, they're men, real men who don't treat women like property. I don't care how long it takes or what I have to do, I'm going to go back to them!"

The second blow to her face had her seeing black spots, on the floor on hands and knees. She was fighting the waves of nausea that came with the pain in her head and she heard her father shouting for her mother and Joseph. She used the couch to drag herself up and tried to focus on what her parents were saying. 

"...twins, Leann, she said their names were Reggie and Ron, what's their last name?"

Dawn started to realize then what she should have remembered. Her father was always spouting off about how powerful he was, about how everyone knew his name. Reggie and Ron didn’t talk about their power, their reputation, because they didn't need to reassure themselves of it. The Kray name stood on it's own and because they were so very different from her father, she’d forgotten. Of  _ course _ her father knew their names, who they were,  _ what _ they were.

"I don't know, Tommy, I never asked," she said. "They were just a couple pretty boys that Dawn was amusing herself with."

"Joseph! What do you know about them!?"

"My apologies, Mr. Jackson, Mrs. Jackson insisted that she would handle Dawn."

"Dammit, I need to know their name!" her father was shouting and Dawn started to laugh. It started quietly, but it got louder, until they were all looking at her. 

"You stupid bastard," she gasped. She could taste blood in her mouth but it didn't matter. "You don't even know who you've fucked with do you!? Their name is Kray! Reggie and Ronnie fucking Kray!"

She saw the look on her father's face, the knowledge in his eyes and she laughed harder. Her vision was fading in and out and she gasped for breath so that she could speak again. 

"You know who they are, don't you? You know what they can do. They'll find me. They'll find out it was you and they'll come for me and when they do, they are going to kill anyone who gets in their way." She lost consciousness then, sinking into a blissful darkness. 

***


	9. Chapter 9

***

Money was a luxury, but it was also a tool, one that the Krays knew well how to utilize. A private plane to fly them, almost all of their men and a whole lot of weapons into a private airstrip outside of Los Angeles. Ron had been shaking his pill bottle in his pocket for most of the flight. Reggie had plans laid out on the table at the front of the cabin and he’d gone over them in detail with the men. He’d pulled the plans for Tommy Jackson’s highrise before they got on the plane. He’d made a few calls and gotten as much information on Jackson’s operation as possible. The research had revealed that Dawn was Tommy’s daughter and it had also revealed why she’d left Los Angeles in the first place. Criminals loved gossip, after all.

Tommy Jackson made a deal with a rival gang in the Los Angeles area. The leader of the rival gang, Ramon, was a young man who’d just taken power upon his father Raul Gutierrez’s death. It would be in the best interests of both of the gangs if they could make an alliance and since Tommy Jackson didn’t have a son, but he did have a beautiful daughter, they fell back to the ancient idea that Tommy could trade his daughter to Ramon Gutierrez in exchange for an alliance between the two gangs. Dawn had refused and the rumor was that Tommy had locked her in her bedroom for a week, giving her a chance each day to change her mind and then beating her when she continued to refuse. Tommy was humiliated when he couldn't produce her for Gutierrez, but he had never made it public knowledge why. Rumors popped up that she was dead, that he'd killed her in a fit of temper. Clearly, she’d escaped at some point and made her way to London, to them, at least until last night, when someone came and took her.

Satisfied as he could be that they had a plan in place, Reggie flopped back into his seat. He put his hand into his pocket and slipped his fingers into the four holes in the brass knuckles that were warm from being against his thigh. He closed his hand around the familiar shape of the weapon, closing his eyes and letting the weight settle against his palm. They were his favorite set, heavy and solid, sitting in his hand with the familiarity of an old friend. He had a gun, he had no problem using it, but so many things could be solved with a serious beating rather than death, and that left less bodies for the police to look into. His methods were effective, and if he did end up having to kill somebody, using brass knuckles and his fist to effectively rip a throat open with a well placed punch left a more lasting impression on anyone watching. 

He had every intention of killing anyone who stood between them and Dawn, but he wanted to feel blood on his hands when he found the bastards who beat Teddy, the ones who put their hands on Dawn and dragged her out of her home in the middle of the night. Ron had cleaned his gun twice since they got on the plane, looking at each bullet for several minutes before loading them in the clip. Reggie was pretty sure he was thinking about who each one was meant for. Ron didn't use brass knuckles. He had a pair, knew how to use them, but he didn't carry them. He liked heavy blunt weapons with a handle. He had once said his favorite was a framing hammer that he picked up near a construction site. Reggie hadn't seen him bring the hammer onto the plane, but he wouldn't be surprised if it made an appearance. Weapons aside, Ron was fully capable of killing with his bare hands and from the way he was clenching his fists over and over, Reggie was certain he would have plenty of blood on them before they were through. 

Taking his hand out of his pocket, the knuckles still on, he pulled the stuffed panda from inside his jacket. He ran his thumbs over the shiny plastic eyes, the soft fuzzy body, scraped his nail lightly across the velcro on the arm. He wondered what was happening to Dawn. Was she locked in a room? Was she tied up? He knew her, she'd still be fighting, and from all accounts, Tommy Jackson was not a man who tolerated anyone fighting him, much less a woman. Had he punished her? Had he decided to follow through with his plan to give her to Gutierrez, with or without her consent, and passed her off for him to deal with? Reggie felt sick and hot and beyond angry. His hand tightened and he looked at the soft little bear, surrounded by his clenched fingers, the brass knuckles buried in its fur. 

The pilot announced that they were flying into California and that they should take their seats and prepare to land in approximately thirty minutes. Reggie tucked the bear back into his jacket and listened to the sound of his men packing up the weapons into duffel bags and holsters, sliding extra clips into the side pockets on tactical pants and strapping into their seats for the landing. Thirty minutes to land, another hour to reach Jackson’s highrise in the heart of the city, and then the only thing between them and Dawn would be a building full of men who didn’t know they were already dead.

***

Ron wasn’t often given to daydreaming. The inside of his head was not always a safe place to be. He did, however, have a very powerful imagination, which in his case was not generally an asset. Currently, his mind was throwing a thousand different clips at him, like mini movies, of all the bad things that could have happened or could currently be happening to Dawn, all in Technicolor 3D with surround sound. He saw her beaten, broken, tied down, chained up, raped, drugged. He heard her scream and curse and sob and beg, and he heard her calling for him and for Reggie, crying for them. He hadn’t seen her dead and he never saw a scenario where they didn’t find her, because even his subconscious rejected the idea that anything would stop them from getting to her. That didn’t stop him from torturing himself with all the ways she could be hurt. 

They were getting ready to land and Ron saw Reggie tuck Dawn’s panda bear back into his jacket. Pulling his pill bottle out of his pocket, Ron dry swallowed two of the tablets. It was an extra dose, normally he took them twice a day, morning and night, but he thought it would probably be a good idea if he got them into his system to start working before they made it to the ground. They wouldn't make him less volatile, not under the circumstances, but they would help him think and direct his violence more effectively. 

Sitting back in his seat, he looked across the aisle at his brother. Reggie met his gaze. 

"Soon, Ronnie," he said, quietly. "She'll be back with us very soon."

"I know she will, Reg, and every man who touched her will pay for it," Ron told him, calmly. Reggie looked at him for a moment, and then he nodded.

***

Dawn's eyelids felt like they weighed several pounds each and she had to struggle to open them, even just a little bit. The room was blessedly dim, and she took a moment to let her eyes adjust before she tried to move. She recognized the bedroom that she'd been in earlier, with its lavender colored comforter and coordinating lilac sheets. She was under the covers, still dressed in her jeans and tank top. She reached under the pillows and found the fuzzy little panda, right where she'd hidden it earlier. Her head screamed at the movement and she swallowed back nausea as she pulled the toy against her chest, holding it tightly. Her face felt wrong and it was hard to move. She recognized the sensation of a swollen eye and busted lip, and possibly the symptoms of a concussion. Her father had a mean right hook.

She was startled when the bedroom door opened and her mother stepped into the room. 

"Oh, good, you're awake," she said, and Dawn was once again amazed by the way her mother could act like all of this was just fine and they were a loving happy family. 

"Unfortunately," Dawn said, a dry throat making her voice sound hoarse and raspy. 

"Your father will be so glad to hear it, he's been waiting," Leann said, smiling brightly. 

"He can keep waiting," Dawn said. "I've got nothing to say to him."

"Oh, Dawnie, come on now, don't act that way. Your face is already swollen, please don't make him hit you again or it will take even longer to heal up."

Dawn stared at her, completely dumbfounded, wondering how her mother had become this horrific Stepford nightmare. 

"No one  _ makes  _ him do anything, mother, remember? He does whatever he wants."

"He wants to talk to you about your… your Kray boys, Dawn. Please just be a good girl and come sit down with us," Leann said, plaintiffly.

"I don't think we need to talk about them.  _ My Kray boys  _ have a reputation that speaks for itself. The only reason he wants to talk about them is because now he knows whose pond he's pissed in."

"Language," Leann said, automatically. "Listen, he said that as soon as you woke I was to bring you out, or he'd have Joseph come get you. So either walk out there or be carried. Take your pick."

***

Dawn walked into the living room on her own power, slowly, carefully, breathing evenly and deep to combat the nausea and dizziness. She’d bet money she had a concussion. It wouldn’t be the first time. She sat carefully on the edge of the sofa and she tucked the stuffed panda behind her on the couch. She didn’t want to leave it in the bedroom, didn’t want to chance losing it. It seemed silly, childish, but it was all she had and it felt like a lifeline, a thread that connected her to them. 

Her mother fluttered around her, finally perching on one of the chairs nearby. Her father wasn’t there yet, but she had no doubt he would be soon. She was betting he was in his office down the hall, meeting with Joseph and others, trying to make some kind of plan to defend themselves. Sure enough, he walked into the room with Joseph and another man on his heels, taking a seat across the coffee table from her, on the other sofa. He leaned back, his arms spread wide, resting along the back edge of the sofa, as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

“You surprise me, Dawn,” he said, his eyes searching her face, taking in the bruises and the swelling, as if admiring his handiwork. “I wouldn’t have thought you had it in you, taking two men at once, and not just for a night, but for what seems to be an extended acquaintance. Did you know who they were before you took them to bed?”

“I knew who they were the first time I met them,” she said, levelly, without bothering to specify how much time might have passed between meeting them and taking them to bed. She didn’t owe her father any kind of explanation, not about them, or anything else. Her goal was to stay alive at this point, and she was going to walk a careful line and answer his questions to keep him from killing her, but nothing more.

“All those years of treating me with contempt for the way I support this family, the business that I do and you go and shack up with not one, but two men who are just like me? Is that some kind of Fruedian thing? Wanted a man just like your daddy?”

“You’re a sick fuck,” she told him. “They may be in the same business, but they’re nothing like you.”

“Sure they are. I asked around about them after we talked earlier. They run East London with brass knuckles, brutality and a reputation for harsh retribution. I was told that one of the boys was gay before you came along. Rumor is either you converted him or he’s doing his brother while his brother does you. Not sure I believe that one. You never were good at sharing as a child. I don’t think you’d let anyone else fuck your lover, not even another man. Must mean they’re sharing you.”

Dawn clenched her jaw at his words, his tone. It wasn’t the rumor that bothered her, she’d heard it before, it was the fact that it was her father saying it, as if he had any business talking to anyone about her sex life, or speculating about her relationship with her men. She took a breath, forced herself to calm down. He was digging at her, trying to get an emotional reaction, to find something he could use, so she had to be cold and give nothing.

“Got nothing to say to that?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“What do you want to hear?” she countered, giving him the same raised eyebrow in return. He actually smiled a little.

“Honestly, I’m sort of impressed. Of all the men in London, you go and shack up with these two, the embodiment of everything you claim to hate about me. I have to tell you, Dawnie, I didn’t think two men at a time would be your thing. If I had known that the problem with Gutierrez was that he only had one cock, we could have found some kind of compromise. You didn’t have to run all the way to England to satisfy your kink.”

Dawn was furious, but this was a game, her father’s game, and she’d learned all the moves years ago. Her voice was carefully bland when she responded.

“Oh, I don’t know about that, I haven’t seen anything Stateside that even comes close. Didn’t Mom tell you how pretty they are? She didn’t get to see them with their clothes off. Believe me, nothing I’ve come across here in L.A. even comes close to… measuring up.”

Tommy laughed, a deep, rich sound and not for the first time Dawn realized that her father had a good laugh. Every once in a while, she could see what might have initially attracted her mother to him. It was what was on the inside that was rotten.

“What’s your plan here, Daddy?” She said the word with the sarcastic disdain it deserved. “You know they’ll be coming.”

“I don’t know that, actually,” her father said. “Why cross an ocean to chase a piece of ass? What makes you think you mean enough for them to follow you?”

“It’s not about me, you know that,” she said, leaning forward. “It’s about respect and you crossed a line. You sent people into their territory and took something. You killed one of their men, one they valued, by the way. Teddy was a personal family friend of the Krays, grew up with them. You said it yourself. They’ve got a reputation for harsh retribution.”

He studied her for a moment.

“You’re right, I walked into their sandbox and stole their toy, but you were mine first and I’m not some two bit nobody. They may not think getting to you is worth the bad blood with me and mine.”

“Don’t bet on it,” she told him.

There was a knock on the door and Joseph crossed the room, opening the door and speaking with whoever was on the other side. They passed a small cardboard box through the opening and Joseph closed the door again. He held the box up to his ear, shook it and seemed satisfied, carrying it across the room to Tommy, who took it and read the label. He looked at Dawn.

“It’s addressed to you. From London. Guess your boys didn’t follow you after all.” He tossed the box and her and she caught it, reflexively. It was light and she raked her eyes over the label, the postage marks. It was addressed to her, at her father’s high rise. Her gaze landed on the return address.

_ R & R Kray _

_ Esmaralda’s Barn _

_ London _

It wasn’t a proper address, just the name of the club, but it was clear who it was from. It was the postage marks that were catching her attention. She’d opened enough mail at the club to know they weren’t quite right. This package had not gone through the postal system. Her fingers were shaking when she opened the box, unfolding the tissue paper inside and pulled out a little stuffed panda. Her hand clenched on it and she dropped the box to the floor, reaching behind her for the toy she’d tucked away. She brought it around and lined up the twin little bears, so that their hands met, the velcro latching them together perfectly. The trembling in her hands steadied and she felt her lips twitch. She raised her eyes to her father and knew the smile on her face wasn’t a pleasant one.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up, I am NO GOOD at writing action scenes, at least, not violent action scenes. I tend to sort of gloss over them. It's a bad habit. If anyone wanted to help me out with that, I'm very very open to constructive criticism.
> 
> ***

***

It was ridiculously simple to infiltrate Tommy Jackson’s high rise. He’d sent the box with the teddy bear in with the youngest, freshest faced of the men, dressed in khaki pants and a polo shirt. They hadn’t questioned when he announced himself as being with International Shipping Company, had signed for the package and sent it up on the elevator. As soon as the light above the doors showed the elevator was at the penthouse floor, the delivery man had put a bullet in the security guard’s forehead and hit the button to unlock the front and rear doors to the building.

Their men were well trained, many of them former military operatives turned mercenaries. The  _ Pop! Pop! _ of silencer-equipped weapons sounded around him in a sort of rhythm and when the additional men appeared from the service stairs, Reggie stepped up to the first one out the door and started swinging. He felt more than saw Ron beside him and together, with a handful of men behind them, they cut their way through Tommy Jackson’s enforcers until they reached the penthouse doors.

Reggie’s arm was tired, the brass knuckles seemed fused to his hand with sweat and blood and thicker things and his breathing was ragged. Beside him, Ron adjusted his grip on the tire iron he’d apparently picked up from the van they’d ridden in to get here. It was slick and dark with blood and Ron’s knuckles were white as he gripped it tightly. Reggie stared at the door for a moment, wondering if they were going to need to kick it down, or if any of their men had a bypass tool with them to blow the lock, and Ron reached out and turned the knob, experimentally. It turned under his hand and Ron looked sideways at him. Reggie shrugged. It wouldn’t be the first time arrogance had gotten someone killed.

***

Dawn couldn’t stop the whimper that left her throat when her father tightened the fist in her hair and yanked her head back further. Her head was throbbing, her vision spotty, and her whole body was shaking from the pain. She could feel the cold bite of the gun barrel digging into the skin under her jaw. She heard the doors to the penthouse slam open and then the sounds of men fighting. She knew that Joseph and the other man had been waiting in the living room after her father ordered her mother to go lock herself in the bathroom and then dragged Dawn down the hall and into the master bedroom at the end of the hall. She heard them moving through the penthouse, the sound of doors crashing open, her mother’s shrill scream, and she had a moment to wonder what was going to happen to Leann before the bedroom door slammed open, bouncing off the wall.

The first man through the door was tall and blond, wearing black tactical gear and carrying an automatic rifle. His accent, when he spoke, was beautifully unmistakable, pure East End London.

“Oi, Boss! Think I found your girl. Wanker in here ‘as a gun on ‘er!”

“Tell your boss to get out of my building, or I’ll kill her,” Tommy snarled. The man stepped sideways, out of the doorway and they were there, coming through the door, spattered with blood, eyes flashing, faces cold. She felt their eyes on her, saw them take in her face, the bruises, the injuries and she saw it the moment the control, the sanity left Ron’s eyes.

“Let her go, Jackson, it’s over,” Reggie said, his voice deeper and harsher than she’d ever heard it, barely more than a growl.

Ron was circling around to the side of them, slowly, his movements silent, threatening and Dawn fought not to make a sound when the gun barrel dug in further.

“I’ll kill her. Take one more step, either of you, and I’ll pull the trigger.”

“You’ll be dead before she hits the ground,” Reggie told him.

“But so will she,” Tommy replied. His eyes flicked to Ron, still moving. “Tell him to stop, unless you want her dead.”

“He’s not gonna listen to me, not anymore,” Reggie said, seriously.

“What-”

“He might listen to her, though. Get the gun out of her throat,” Reggie said and Dawn swallowed as the pressure against her throat eased.

“There, I did it! Dawn, call off your pit bull, before he gets you killed.” She gave a hoarse chuckle and saw her father look at her, incredulous.

“Can’t call him off. Didn’t your research tell you anything about Ronnie?”

“Rumors that he’s psychotic, goes into murderous rages, but they’re just rumors. Make their rep more intimidating,” Tommy said and Reggie and Dawn both shook their heads.

“Not rumors. Fact. Meds and Dawn help him keep it together. I’ll give you three guesses which of those is more important,” Reggie said.

“Get a leash on him, Dawn, or maybe I shoot him instead,” her father said in her ear.

“Let me go. You have to take your hands off me,” she said. “He won’t stand for another man’s hands on me.” Dawn knew it was true, but she had no idea if it would be enough at this point. Looking into Ron’s eyes, she knew it wouldn’t do any good to try to talk to him, there was no one there who was going to listen.

Wild-eyed but stubborn, Tommy turned so that she was between him and Ron, still with his fist in her hair. She couldn’t help the pain sound that left her throat and she watched Ron, her eyes locked with his. She saw his jaw tighten, his shoulders tense and she heard her father make a strangled sound behind her, then she was shoved forward, crying out as a handful of her hair was yanked out of the back of her head.

***

It was like a movie and he was watching it on a screen. Ron saw Dawn, both eyes blackened, left eyebrow and cheekbone split and swelling, her bottom lip split and puffy. There were bruises on her arms and shoulders, ugly and dark on her pale skin, bared by the tank top she was wearing. A dark haired man who somehow had Dawn’s eyes had a fist in the back of her hair, holding her head back at a harsh angle, a pistol shoved under her chin, into her throat. He saw her eyes land on his face, saw the relief, and his body was moving without his permission. He was riding on adrenaline and instincts. Distantly, he heard them talking, Reggie, Dawn, the man with the gun. He was crouching, tense, and then the man with the gun jerked her around by her hair and she whimpered in pain. 

He was already surging forward when he saw Reggie move. The gun disappeared from Dawn’s throat and Ron saw Reggie shove her forward, into his path. She stumbled, fell, and then she was in his arms. He dragged her harshly against his chest, moving backward, pulling her with him, further from the others, until he slammed into the wall. She slid her arms around his neck and he held her, carefully stroked his hand over her hair, breathed in her scent and let the feeling of her body against his bring him back to himself.

“Ronnie,” she said, her voice cracking.

“Got you, Sunshine. Got you,” he murmured. He felt her knees give, caught her weight and held her up. Her fingers clenched in his shirt.

“Don’t let me go, Ronnie.”

“Never, Sunshine.”

***

Dawn closed her eyes when Ron slid his arm behind her knees and lifted her off the ground. She kept them closed when he started moving, knowing if she could see, she was going to get dizzy and sick. She rested her head on his chest instead, feeling the strong, steady beat of his heart under her cheek. When they stopped moving, she slowly opened her eyes again. She saw her mother, alive, sitting in a straight backed dining room chair, a man with a gun standing beside her, presumably keeping her in her seat. Leann looked terrified and a little bit confused, as if she wasn’t sure why this was happening. A few feet away, her father was on his knees on the floor, a man on either side of him, the barrels of their guns aimed casually at his head. Reggie was moving toward her and she reached her hand out toward him, fingers sliding over the silk of his shirt, to his neck, fingers threading into his hair, and he leaned close, very gently touching his forehead to hers.

“Hey, Reg,” she said, softly.

“Sunshine, luv, your face,” he said. "He did this to you?"

"I'm okay," she said. "You're here. You're both here, so I'll be fine."

He kissed her mouth, very carefully and she sighed. 

"Take me home, Reggie?"

"Hold tight, luv. Gotta take out the rubbish," he told her, turning to look at her parents. 

"Who's the woman?" 

"She's my mother," Dawn said. "She's not awful, Reggie, she's just… well-trained."

"Don't like hurting women," he said, eyeing Leann. "We'll leave her be, 'less she's responsible for any of those bruises."

"She's never hit me. She's too spineless to stop him from hurting me, but she would never."

"That just leaves him," Reggie said, looking at Tommy. 

"Need to set you down, Sunshine," Ron said, kissing her temple. 

"No," she whispered, "Why?"

"I want to feel his blood on my hands."

"You can't, Ronnie," she said. She looked at Reggie. "You can't kill him."

"I know he's your father, luv, but-" Reggie began, but she stopped him.

"It's not sentimental, Reg. It's… political, or maybe just practical, I'm not sure. If you kill him, it leaves a power vacuum here in L.A. Either the other gangs move in and get a lot more powerful, or someone new moves in."

"The devil you know?" Reggie asked, with a hint of a smile. She looked at her father, kneeling on the floor. 

"He's not the devil. He's nothing. Not anymore." 

"He put his hands on you, Dawn," Ron growled. 

"I know, Ronnie, but it's over. Nobody's hands on me now but yours and Reggie's," she told him, reaching up to stroke his hair back. She felt Reggie standing with them and felt the heat of his body against her shoulder. 

"Ron," he said, "we've got her. We're going home."

She looked up at the two of them, heads close together, faces splattered with other people's blood, looking at her like she was their whole world, and realized that she was already home. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***  
> Well, what did we think? These characters have sort of invaded my brain. I've already written several short follow up fics to go with these and they just keep sort of pouring out onto my screen, so for the foreseeable future, I'm just going to keep writing...
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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